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So here’s a thing: Werewolves and Vampires are being added to free FPS Battlefield Heroes. It’s some kind of micro-payment event, lasting a month, where you can pay to be able to rise again in the night maps of the game. “Once-dead Nationals can be transformed into blood-sucking vampires and Royals into teeth bearing werewolves.” Okay then. A trailer, below, explains a bit more.

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And yeah, I’m totally aware that BF:Heroes is free-to-play and TF2 is not. But TF2’s model of paying a certain amount of money beforehand and nothing afterwards is far superior to any micro-payment stinker like BF:H.

The F2P, pay for upgrades model will only work on social networking sites.

Yes, you heard it here first: BF:Heroes will generate more money if they get it in browser format and tack it into facebook! +100 facebook friend quiz coins if you get to level 5!

Seriously, though… I predict a movement by less casual companies (compared to the Iphone games/facebook game companies) like EA, THQ, and all that, move F2P games into the social network scene.

Sid Myer (spell check?) is already making a version of his Civilization game to fit facebook!
Exciting news, I think. Imagine- getting the college girls as excited for BF:Heroes as they are about their happy aquarium.

Meh. That’s exactly the sort of thing I’d pay for. I don’t actually play BGH, but if I did then a limited time silly thing like this would appeal to me. There would have to be the option for people to play on standard servers though and I’d want some sort of permanent “badge” on my character to show I’d taken part. Complaining about micro-payments, while defending indie game pricing… does not compute. In both cases someone offers something for a price and you have the choice of either paying or not paying. In 99% of cases my choice is going to be not paying but good luck to both camps. It doesn’t work unless the consumer supports it, and if the consumer supports it then they’re the one you should have a beef with not the capitalist trying to make a buck.

Does not compute in what way? Micro-payments implies continued payment for content. The other payment method you’re presumably talking about is the trad one off payment model. Regardless of what you think of either one… they are clearly not the same.

I DICE do penetrate the Twilight market with this move (as they might well be doing), I’m going to get Battlefield Heroes to find out just how many people eschew the game in favour of finding a way to grind their supernatural avatars together.

Unique attacks for Vampires:
– Sparkle: blind enemies within 10 meters as your skin sparkles in their eyes, akin to a flashbang in a depressed teenage girl’s panties
– Skin of marble: Vampires get +100 armor for 5 seconds, but are forced to stand still and strike a pose looking like they are watching you sleep.

Unique attacks for Werewolves:
– Turns into a mount: werewolves turn into a wol- shaped wheelbarrow which players can pick up by its legs and aim at any direction. The werewolf shouts “Bella!” as they fly away. Does 50 damage to enemies in their path.
– Wolf pack: werewolves get +10% attack for every other werewolf within a 15 meter radius.

Combo attacks:
– Bromance: A werewolf and vampire can join in a loving embrace (no kissing though) for 45 seconds to score 1 point for both teams. If their embrace is interrupted, they gain a Rage buff which gives a x2 multiplier for all attacks, health and armor.

B-bu-but… wait, what? While I admit that there’s some hilarity in pitching an army of android Fonzies (from Happy Days) against Sabretooth (Wolverine’s arch-nemesis) clones, there’s no way that either of those really looks like a vampire or a werewolf.

Take a page out of the World of Darkness book if you’re going to add bloodsuckers and howlers in a competitive environment!

Hmmmm, I tried this on a whim after reading this post, and several things spring to mind:

1.) It’s not compatible with Firefox 3.6. I had to go forum hunting, and eventually install a workaround using the IE Tab Plugin.

2.) The damage models seem….flimsy? I played a Commando sniper type person, and a direct hit seemed to only do marginal damage. I guess this changes as you level up, but makes it a right drag, and not what I’d call fun exactly…

3.) It is fast and responsive, and once it actually loaded, ran like a dream, so thumbs way up there and fair play to them.

4.) The level and mission systems are ace. Kind of like TF2 achievements, but with a little added incentive as there’s the dreaded number seeking drive going on that fuels RPG-a-likes. The costumes are kind of cool too. However, telling teams apart (especially with non specialist costumed “newbies” is a pain, and normally comes down to checking the colour of your enemies name..

5.) Tanks are horribly overpowered until you meet a Commando avec explosives.

6.) Annnnnnd finally, it kept kicking me off for cheating. Apparently. Supposedly they couldn’t contact punkbuster, so off I had to go. Did I get to keep the progress towards the Mission I was on and any exp? Did I bollocks.

All in all, I think I’ll stick with TF2 cheers. Something about TF2 encourages teamwork and comradry. Something about this just seemed to encourage 14 year old whiners screaming “omg hax lol need ur tank giv it me plz”.

Tanks are horribly underpowered, can’t kill jack crap with them. Where as they die to a couple good hits from a Gunner’s bazooka. Not sure what games you played where Tanks were dominating. I regularly solo Tanks on my Gunner, even when its 2 tanks vs 1 me.

Must have just been a crappy server then when I played, I nailed a good 4-5 people before someone took me down. I don’t think people were too organised though – with the matchmaking I’m guessing most people there were also pretty new to it..

A further report from a long-timeBH player, on the state of the game post-noobifying the weapons by allowing you to buy better ones.

1. The game is a bit more deserted, as I have less odds of being hooked into a full server than before. But I can usually get a good dame going in a short epriod of time.

2. The uber (“nuber”) weapons you can buy do indeed make a difference in DPS, no matter what DICE says. If they didn’t why would anyone buy them.

3. That said, it’s really only a hindrance when I run into GOOD TEAMWORK players with nuber guns that it’s a problem. The bought weapons tend to instill an overconfidence in a lot of players: they just stand and shoot at you (or run in a straight line). Only when I run into a team of guys who understand the game AND have the weapons is it insanely 1-sided. However, I have been playing FPS and 3rd person shooters since the original DOOM LAN days (about 15 years ago), and am a pretty good player in all of them (except TF2). A new player may find the game unplayable without the new guns.

4. The only problem I have with buying the guns is that the game was predicated on a promise that you could NEVER buy a direct advantage. So money was for clothes and XP boosts, not to compensate for lack of ability.

A tangent, which I am sure I will repeat constantly for the next few months here: I cannot wait until the internet “everything should always be free/below production cost” generation are forced into jobs where they must convince people to actually pay for things in order to have an apartment/house/life. The humor will be of a particularly high quality.

Don’t think it should sound too harsh; I just weary of the “indie games cost too much” and “why should I ever have to pay for anyone else’s work” side of arguments around pricing/costs of games. (The former is N/A to this particular game.) As if there is a moral argument about a product maker having the audacity to charge what they consider a fair price for a game. Economic arguments about pricing and elasticity, yes; moral argument against having to pay for a game, no.

And you’ll notice I have avoided commenting in the threads where these arguments have actually been voiced. But it should be obvious which side I stand on.

The reason I stopped playing BF:Heroes was there were no more guns to purchase…
Seriously, on any of the 3 classes, you get a short ranged version, medium ranged version, and long ranged version. Once you have all 3 versions, that was really “it”.

Given that they’re not throwing in zombies, this is probably the most creative EA have been in ages. Even if it basically seems to be a case of custom eye-glow and possibly facial hair. (I guess adding a tail bone to the animation skeleton would have been too much work.)

(That said, call it a cynical TF2-alike all you want, but those are some cute little angry houses. Engines of destruction haven’t been so kawaii since Dawn of War was graced by a dreadnaught from The Emperor’s Pastel Kitties.)